Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Jess Weixler

Title: Jess Weixler

Stats: Born June 1981. Attended Julliard.

Why NYIndieSeen Cares: Cuz she's in a movie about a girl with a va-jay jay that bites!

Jess Weixler received the Special Jury Prize for Teeth for a juicy and jaw dropping performance at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival last month. Teeth is about a high school student who works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group's most "active" participant.

Her task is made even more difficult by her bad boy stepbrother Brad's increasingly provocative behavior at time. A stranger to her own body, Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her uniqueness, Dawn experiences both pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the "vagina dentata" myth.

I guess that's why her performance was "jaw dropping and juicy"

Ok, that's a lil gross, but this is an actress worth SEEIN. She's only 25 and already the talk of all the major film festival circuits. She is in the upcoming film Goodbye Baby starring Alan Ruck and currently filming Periphery. Look out Scarlett Johansson, this girl is on fire!

Check out the movie trailer here:

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Oscar Isaac

Title: Oscar Isaac

Stats: Born in Guatemala in 1980. A 2005 graduate of the Juilliard School.

Why NYIndieSeen Cares: Becuz I caught a first hand account of his acting onstage playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. This was in Manhattan's renowned Shakepeare In The Park!

Isaac's first major film role is as Joseph opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes in the film The Nativity Story. He just wrapped shooting on the Che Guevara biopic Guerrilla. In addition to movie appearances, he made an appearance in the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

As far as his performance in theater. He's on point. He has an amazing voice for the stage and he needs to be in more indie films. He's currently rumored to be dating Rosario Dawson.

"How come she always gets the good ones?!?" (Coming To America reference)

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Shareeka Epps

Title: Shareeka Epps

Stats: Best Female Lead nominee for the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards. Attended William Alexander 51 in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

What an amazing story for this rookie on the indie circuit. So apparently director and writer (Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden) happened to stop by her school looking for young actors. The filmmakers lived a few blocks away from the school.

They found Epps to be a gem and chose her among a fierce competition by several other students in the school to be cast in the award nominated film Half Nelson. The feature film was originally started as a short film called Gowanus, Brooklyn in which Epps was first cast. She steps outside the box of ditzy Hollywood actresses too. With a score of 1400 on her SATs and a National Merit Scholar, Epps is one of those few teen actresses who won’t get caught up by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

Epps just completed Neal Cassady and the sequel to Alien Vs. Predator. She's doin big things! Watch out for this kid!